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Is Strategic Planning Relevant to all Organizations?

Is Strategic Planning and Information Systems Strategic Planning Relevant to all Organizations?

Strategy Strategy is a broad based formula for how business is going to compete, what its goals should be, and what policies will be needed to carry out these goals. The essence of formulating competitive strategy is relating a company to its environment.

Porter (1980), Competitive Strategy The definitions of strategy change from scholar to scholar. There is no agreed way to define strategy as the interpretations of each writer are based on methodological preference (Robson, 1997). The above definition is an example of Porters stance on what a strategy is.

Strategic planning Strategic management is concerned with deciding on strategy and planning on how that strategy is to be put in to effect via: •Strategic Analysis •Strategic Choice •Strategic execution The above definition of strategic management is by Johnson and Scholes(1993) and essentially outlines that strategies are formulated and concern all organizations, large or small.

Strategic planning is a continual process within an organization, the people responsible for the success of strategic planning outline the desired future, then devise a strategy for making it happen. Strategic planning by its very nature is adaptive and the devisor is always developing it to be relevant for the future. Key environmental factors are predicted and their influence on the organization looked at and then optimum measures are taken so the organization can benefit from these environmental factors.

Business planning and strategic planning are two different things. Business plans are usually for an outside audience where the strategic plans are developed for internal purposes. Also strategic plans look at the 'bigger picture' where business planning looks at certain elements of an organization.

The Composition of a Strategic Plan Strategic plans are generally made up of one or more interconnected elements; Vision, mission, Values, assessment, goals/objectives, strategy and outcomes. They also incorporate strategic management principles and models. A possible example of a strategic plan follows: The Vision shows the dreams of the organization and broadly capture future services, markets and structures but do not go in to great detail. The Mission outlines customers, competitors and markets. It shows "a desired position in a predicted future world" and a "bulls eye or target of the strategy"(Yavitz & Newman, 1982). "A mission should not commit a firm to what it must do in order to survive but what it chooses to do in order to thrive" (Ackoff, 1986). Values...